At the beginning of last month I paid a cheque for £995 into my branch of Santander Bank using its ATM machine, which issued a receipt. The money has not been paid into my account. After many frustrating phone calls, faxes, letters and meetings I was told at the end of the month that the cheque had been lost in the post on its way to the clearing centre and had never been presented to the issuing bank – Barclays, Cambridge.

I have since learned from Barclays that the cheque was presented on 15 March and paid out on 18 March. I have Barclays' internal account number from which it was paid.

I was promised this would be cleared up by 11 April but the money is still not in my account. I have told Santander that I will try to get my money back using the courts, but can you help? MK, Fenstanton, Cambs

Your problem stands out, even among the torrent of complaints we receive about Santander, because you have a receipt for your deposit, as well as confirmation from Barclays that the cheque had been paid to Santander – but your bank has still not found and given you access to your money. Santander got back to us very quickly (unfortunately, the public has to deal with Santander's Kafka-esque admin departments rather than its more efficient media team), claiming the delay was due to a handling error in the branch where the cheque was initially deposited via the ATM.

A spokeswoman said: "We are committed to providing a high level of customer service at all times and feedback from customers helps to highlight areas where we can improve." The good news is that the cheque has finally cleared and Santander has offered you £75 as an apology, which you have accepted.

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